I am pleased to be part of this very intriguing and comprehensive juried exhibit curated by Anthony Matthews and Matt Steffich.

Open daily Friday September 29-Sunday October 22. 10 am-5 pm

Admission free.

The 2017 Salt Spring National Art Prize and the Salt Spring Arts Council are proud to present the Parallel Art Show. The exhibition features the work of fifty outstanding Salt Spring Island artists who submitted their work to SSNAP 2017. Curated by Matt Steffich and Anthony Matthews, this exhibition demonstrates why Salt Spring Island is known as one of the premier arts communities in Canada.

Vote in the Viewers’ Choice Awards. Three prizes of $750, $500 and $300, generously supported by Michael Whitfield

JULY 2017

MANY YEARS HAVE PASSED - Pod Contemporary

A new body of work in a new direction. Nine large canvases and panels as well as over a dozen smaller works will be exhibited at Pod Contemporary on Salt Spring Island from July 27th through to September 8th, 2017.

I like to document everyday life and moments in time whether from the daily news stream or snippets of conversations. Painting is a wonderful medium which allows for this sort of documentation and exploration. It allows for both the personal and the distant all at the same time. Inviting introspection and reflection, like receiving a posted hand written letter from a friend.

These paintings from this new body of work unfold with time. They are meant to be lived with and exist in a place where life takes place.

The grids, numbering and seemingly random annotations are like a meditation to me. They allow my mind to wander in that non-structured space and just be in the painting. Not composing, not designing, not being analytical, not planning. The framework of the grid allows me to have or create some structure and order which I feel is necessary. Not sure if it is a personal need or a necessity for the painting to come to life at this point. The grid is also an effective way to display a variety of information and bring a kind of order to my growing lexicon or collection of marks, words and shapes.

For example, the periodic table is a grid and is a bit irregular with squares hanging off the edges of the main grid. I like that. It’s not perfect but still creates a certain soft order of the elements. Maybe it’s been added on to as time goes by. That sort of looseness within the grid is what I’m interested in. Not the rigidity or the perfect symmetry that certain grids can have.

The painting is a repository for different life observations, memories and documentation and the grids and numbers serve a way of organizing all this information which may look scientific but isn't really although I like the idea of the numbers and annotations looking scientific. A kind of "fake science" LOL. Although math or science were never my strong subjects I’ve always loved the notion of mathematics and being scientific. The research and cataloguing or documenting has been a fascination with me for a long while.

I like the idea of painting being this flat surface that is used as a sounding board to try and experiment different things. It is a way to process thoughts, track our days, signs, messages and evidence of breathing in and breathing out. If it doesn't work it can be covered up or scraped away which all adds to the layers and history of the painting giving the piece more meaning and intrigue to the viewer.

This work is about alluding to a narrative but not really telling a story. Just enough to engage the viewer on some level. My goal was to have the viewer feel individual when viewing the work. Not wanting to tell them but for them to feel and see their own memories, thoughts, interpretations in the paintings.

OCTOBER 2016

ARITZIA ROBSON STORE

One of my paintings is prominently featured in the new Vancouver's Robson Street Aritzia store amongst many other original pieces by local Vancouver and BC artists.

JUNE 2016

INGRESS

A new body of work now on exhibit at Espace d. (at the foot of Homer St on Cordova St in Vancouver's Gastown).

http://espacedonline.com/art/art/michela-sorrentino/

SEPTEMBER 2016

YAM Magazine

A nice little feature in YAM Magazine's "On Our Radar" section.

Page One Publishing

APRIL 2016

SECOND CHANCE TV Series

Recently a painting of mine was purchased to be used in a set for a tv series filmed in Vancouver called Second Chance on the FOX network. Here is a photo of the painting in situ on the set as well as a short clip of one of the episodes that showcases the painting. Kind of fun to see my work on tv!

This series of drawings started out as an exercise or way of reconnecting with my studio practice after a fairly long hiatus. It ended up becoming kind of therapeutic and meditative process to do these quick drawings on a torn page that turned into a collection of a sort of visual alphabet or language that is now informing larger pieces both on paper and on canvas or board. This particular grouping on the wall is titled The “F” Words as the text pages all come from the “F” book of an old Encyclopedia Britanica. A play on words with a bit of humour attached.

At first glance the drawings or “glyphs” are all that you see. But as you come closer you see that the drawings interact with the printed text on the pages. Where there is a simple space for a paragraph break now becomes a graphic element integral to the drawing itself. One of these pages on its own is not nearly as exciting as when there is a group of them interacting with one another. I found that I was really enjoying moving the drawings around and finding placements that worked well in the particular space whether on the floor or on the wall. The looseness of the pages was also important. They lost some of their “life” if they were completely tacked down. They were more exciting to me when left to flitter with a passing breeze.

At the top of all these pages, there are the key words like finance, France, fisheries, fou-fou, fil-fil, fir-fir, fine arts, fresco, frederick, Fiji, for-fos, fos-fos etc. These words are prompts with the intention to help one locate a particular thing in the encyclopedia or dictionary. A technique that is now lost on the digital age of today. My kids, who are in high school, don’t even know how to look up something in a dictionary or encyclopedia or even a telephone book. It is completely lost to the newer generations.

These old, tattered encyclopedias given to me by the artist and author Nick Bantock, had been stacked up in my studio for years. More as a place to sit my tea cup than anything else. I knew that they would find their way into my work somehow but wasn’t exactly sure how. This is not a new process by any means. For years, artists have worked on found objects or found ephemera creating something new from something old. In my case it was a way of quickly putting down forms that excite, inspire and intrigue me in the limited studio time I had. As the series grew, so did my excitement and therefore the time spent in the studio increased by the day....which is always such a bonus.

An all new body of work dedicated to the act of spontaneous play and how many of us grieve and reminisce the loss of play in our lives and how some are able to keep the act of playfulness active and alive throughout their lives. Ten large scale works in cold wax and oil on cradled wood panels.

I will be in attendance for the opening of Ludique. Hope to see you there.

DECEMBER 2014

A Visible Trace - new works by Michela Sorrentino

Espace d

Thursday, December 4th

215-332 West Cordova (@Homer)

Vancouver, BC

6-8pm

Join us for the grand opening of Espace d's beautiful new shop and gallery space in Gastown, Vancouver's downtown heritage neighbourhood. I will be showing a new body of work called "A Visible Trace".

This new body of work explores the importance that mark making has on my paintings. I almost always begin with some sort of automated drawing with drawing tools or paint to deactivate the surface. Previously these marks were often buried and indistinguishable once the painting was complete.

With this body of work I have deliberately left untouched canvas and traces of the initial mark making in the completed pieces. This enables the viewer to see the history of my process as well as depicting how the marks are used as an underlying structure giving a visual sense of order.